CHINA WATCHAide to Cuomo, Hochul Was a Chinese Agent

In a 65-page federal indictment unsealed last week, prosecutor described how Linda Sun, 40, of Manhasset, on the North Shore of Long Island, who worked for the NY State government for 14 years, serving as an aide to New York’s former governor Andrew Cuomo and current governor Kathy Hochul, received money and other benefits in exchange for providing help to the People’s Republic of China and its Communist Party.

Among the services Sun provided China: blocking Taiwanese officials from having access to the governor’s office; eliminating references to Taiwan from state communications; and quashing meetings between Taiwanese officials and state leaders, including Hochul, who succeeded Cuomo and who promoted Sun to deputy chief of staff.

Sun also ensured that state officials would not publicly refer to the persecution of Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic group in western China which has been increasingly oppressed y the Chinese authorities.

On Tuesday last week, Sun was charged with ten criminal counts which included visa fraud, money laundering, and other crimes.

Her husband, Chris Hu, 41, a businessman, is charged with money laundering.

Both pleaded not guilty. They were released on bond and surrendered their passports.

The charges against Sun are but the latest chapter in initiative driven by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn to check efforts by the Chinese government to increase its secret influence across the United States.

In July, Shujun Wang, 75, a Queens residents presenting himself as a democracy activist and scholar, was convicted in Brooklyn federal court of acting as a spy for the Chinese Communist Party. Last summer, three men were convicted in the same court for stalking a family in New Jersey on behalf of the Chinese government. In another case, two men were charged with operating a secret police station for China in a building in Lower Manhattan.

Among the benefits Sun received, according to the indictment, were the assistance with millions of dollars in transactions for China-based businesses tied to her husband’s businesses; travel benefits; tickets to events such as a performance by the Chinese National Traditional Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; the promotion of the Queens freight business; and employment for Sun’s cousin in China.

Prosecutors say Sun and Hu laundered the money they received to buy their $3.6 million, 5-bedroom home on a cul-de-sac in Manhasset; a $1.9 million condominium in Honolulu; and luxury cars, including a 2024 Ferrari, among other things.